The roots of Science Fest reach back to the earliest days of the physics department at IU Bloomington. The first physics open house was held in 1911!
The department continued their outreach activities for decades, with an interruption during WWII. Regular physics open houses began in 1971 and have continued uninterrupted since. Other departments started joining in these events until 2014 when it was renamed Science Fest.
We recently sat down with Executive Dean Rick Van Kooten, who also happens to be a physicist, asked him how eclipses have advanced the science of his field. He described the Eddington experiment, a test of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. This experiment could only be done during the unique circumstances made possible by a total solar eclipse.